Your Right to Know

For the second time this year, Ohio School Board President Debe Terhar is under fire for voicing
her personal opinion, this time about a novel by Ohio native and Nobel Prize-winning author Toni
Morrison.

Terhar said at the state school board meeting on Tuesday that
The Bluest Eye, Morrison’s first novel, should not be included on a suggested reading list
for Ohio high-school students because it is “totally inappropriate.”

“I don’t want my grandchildren reading it, and I don’t want anyone else’s children reading it,”
Terhar said at the board meeting. “It should not be used in any school for any Ohio K-12 child. If
you want to use it in college somewhere, that’s fine.”

At the time, Terhar did not specify why she opposes Morrison’s novel, but said it is
inappropriate for the school board to “even be associated with it.”

Set in the 1940s in Lorain, the book’s heroine is a black girl, Pecola Breedlove, who dreams of
how her life would be better if she had blue eyes like a white person. In the novel, the girl is
raped and impregnated by her father.

Neither the board nor the Ohio Department of Education made any immediate changes to the book
list that is suggested, not required, in Common Core curriculum standards being implemented by Ohio
and other states to better prepare students for college.
The Bluest Eye is on the list for 11th-grade English/language arts.

John Charlton, spokesman for the Department of Education, said Morrison’s book is “not part of
the new learning standards in Ohio and it’s not required of any school or teacher. Local school
districts make their own decisions.”

“It’s not the position of the board that the book, or any book, be banned,” Charlton added.

Terhar was backed by fellow board member Mark Smith, president of Ohio Christian University, who
said he is very concerned about such books, because they are “quite divisive, and the benefit
educationally is questionable at the least.”

“I see an underlying socialist-communist agenda ... that is anti what this nation is about,”
Smith said.

Morrison, a Lorain native, published
The Bluest Eye in 1970. She won the Pulitzer Prize for
Beloved in 1988 and was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1993.

Paul Bogaards, head of media relations for Knopf Doubleday, Morrison’s publisher, sent a
response to the
Dispatch regarding Terhar’s comments.

“Toni Morrison’s contribution to American letters is widely known. ... When school
representatives choose to trumpet ideology over ideas, asking for books to be banned or withdrawn,
students suffer. We oppose literary censorship in all forms and support the First Amendment rights
of readers to make their own reading choices.”

The Common Core standards have drawn fire from conservatives, and Morrison’s book has become the
latest flash point because of its graphic rape scene. Last month, an Alabama state senator
unsuccessfully sought to ban use of the novel in schools.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio sent a letter to Terhar yesterday questioning her
comments.

“Unfortunately, there is a long and troubling tradition of attacking African-American literature
on the grounds that it is ‘too controversial’ for young people,” Christine Link, executive director
of the ACLU of Ohio, said in a statement. “These attempts to ignore or gloss over complex issues do
a disservice to our students, who cannot lead our future unless they fully understand the past and
present.”

The ACLU asked Terhar and other board members to attend a Sept. 26 event in Columbus in
observance of “Banned Books Week,” a national effort to spotlight literary censorship.

In a statement released yesterday, Terhar said her comments reflected her personal views and
stressed that she remained “completely supportive of Ohio’s new learning standards.”

“The comments I made reflected my concern about the graphic passages contained in a specific
text. I do not personally believe these passages are suitable for school-age children. Nothing more
and nothing less should be inferred. In particular, no disparagement was meant towards the
celebrated career of Ohio author Toni Morrison.”

After President Barack Obama’s call for stricter gun-control laws earlier this year, Terhar
posted a picture of Adolf Hitler on her Facebook page with the quotation: “Never forget what this
tyrant said, ‘To conquer a nation first disarm its citizens.’ — Adolf Hitler.”

She survived an ouster vote by fellow board members and apologized for her “error in
judgment."